Creating semantically valid topic maps, Geir Ove
Grønmo, May 2000
A paper about schemas for topic maps from XML Europe 2000. It discusses
the need for a schema system, gives examples of possible constraints that a
schema could describe, and examines existing constraint mechanisms and their
applicability to topic maps. The slides from the presentation are
also available.

Topic
maps: Introduction and Allegro, Steve Pepper and Hans Holger Rath,
November 1999
A paper from XML 1999 that contains an introduction to topic maps followed by a
discussion of extended concepts such as topic map templates, type hierarchies,
association types and constraints.

Query language

TMQL requirements (1.0.0), Hans Holger Rath & Lars
Marius Garshol, August 2001
A draft user requirements document for the new ISO standard, Topic
Map Query Language (TMQL). Feedback on this document is solicited by SC34/WG3.
Please send your comments to your national standards body and to the
editors. See also the
TMQL home page.

tolog
– a tutorial, Lars Marius Garshol, December 2003
A tutorial introduction to the tolog topic map query language, which
is implemented in the OKS, and which is also included in the Omnigator.

tolog
– a topic map query language, Lars Marius Garshol, May 2001
A paper from XML Europe 2001 that describes a query language for topic maps
called tolog. This query language is inspired by Prolog and fully supports the
TMQL requirements. It has a clear and simple syntax, and its basic features are
easy to implement.

Scope

Towards
a General Theory of Scope, Steve Pepper & Geir Ove Grønmo,
June 2001
A paper from Extreme Markup 2001 that provides the first ever in-depth examination
of the topic map concept of "scope": What scope is, how to use it, how it relates
to "context", and not least how applications might take advantage of it when
processing a topic map.

A Proposal for
Extending Scope in XTM, Kal Ahmed, July 2002 Outlines a
proposal for an more prescriptive treatment of the concepts of scope and
what it means for a characteristic assignment to be valid. The document
goes on to propose the means by which this approach to scope might be
encoded in an XML document.

Structuring
Scope, Marc de Graauw, November 2002 Discusses the
interpretation of scope (or the semantics of scope) and the effect of
scope on the merging of topic characteristics when two topics are
merged.

RDF

Living
with topic maps and RDF, Lars Marius Garshol, March 2003
About how to deal with both topic maps and RDF. The paper shows how to
do data conversion in both directions, how to convert RDF schemas to
topic map schemas, how to use OWL with topic maps, shows how to do
queries across both representations, and also shows how it is possible
to have vocabularies that can be used with both topic maps and RDF.

Q: A
unifying model for RDF and Topic Maps, Lars Marius Garshol,
August 2005
This paper defines a formal model, called Q, in which Topic Maps and
RDF have the same representation, which means that it's possible to
hide most differences between the two by using this model. The paper
is very technical, and assumes familiarity with both Topic Maps and
RDF, so it may be best to read the "Living..." paper first. The slides from the presentation are also
available.

Topic
maps, RDF, DAML, OIL: A comparison, Lars Marius Garshol, December 2001
An in-depth paper about the similarities and differences between these
semantic web technologies. It introduces all of the technologies,
comparing them to a simple conceptual model that highlights how they
compare. A demonstration of how to map data between the technologies
is also given.

Ten Theses on Topic
Maps and RDF, Steve Pepper, August 2002
Ten theses on the relationship between topic maps and RDF. This is a second cut
at understanding the similarities and differences between these two approaches
to making information findable.

Curing the
Web's Identity Crisis: Subject Indicators for RDF, Steve Pepper &
Sylvia Schwab, March 2003
A contribution to the debate on the "Identity Crisis" of the Web, showing how
concepts developed as part of XML Topic Maps - in particular, the notion of
subject indicators - provide an elegant solution.

Autogeneration

Automagic Topic
Maps, Geir Ove Grønmo, May 2002 This paper explains a
new approach for creating topic maps from existing data sources. The
approach consists of a three-step procedure, and includes going via
RDF to produce the final topic map.

Content management

Topic maps in
content management: The rise of the ITMS, Lars Marius Garshol,
October 2002 This paper shows how topic maps can address the
limitations of traditional content management systems while building on
their strengths. The term ITMS (Integrated Topic Management System) is
coined for a content management system based on topic maps, and the
paper shows what is necessary to build such systems, as well as what
benefits they bring.

Knowledge management

Applications

Web 2.0 and Topic Maps, Lars Marius Garshol, February
2007
A presentation on what Web 2.0 is, exactly, and how it compares with
Topic Maps. Looks at wikis, tagging, and folksonomies, and gives some
examples of Topic Maps-based Web 2.0 applications.

Seriously capable topic maps, Ann Wrightson, February
2001
This paper outlines what is required of topic maps in order to gain the most
benefit from them. A topic map architecture is described which covers a variety
of information repositories.

Semantic Web Services

TMRAP, Ontopia home page
A home page collecting all the information there is about TMRAP,
Ontopia's web service interface to Topic Maps servers.

TM/XML, Ontopia home page
A home page collecting all the information there is about TM/XML,
Ontopia's Topic Maps syntax in XML which is designed to be easy to
process with XML tools like XSLT.

Semantic Web Servers, Graham Moore, December 2003
A presentation about the missing piece in the Semantic Web standardization
efforts: the wire protocol for exchanging semantic web data, and making it
possible to build Semantic Web Servers.